A Devil of Devotion
by Justaburntkid90
Summary: From the moment our eyes locked, I knew without hesitation that this man loved me and that he would do everything in his immense power to protect me. The startling clarity of my realisation led me to wonder if it had been a force much greater than ourselves that had brought us together. Not God, for such a notion was laughable to a ward of the Pit, but a force much greater. Fate.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N I have never written Batman fanfiction before and tbh this will probably be my only foray into it but having watched TDKR I felt compelled to write something for these two. This will be a multi chapter fic so if you like it please feel free to alert it. Any reviews would be very welcome. Anyway enough from me, on with the show!_

Prologue

The blood curdling screams of my mother echoed throughout the Pit, bouncing off the stone walls and into my ears. Before me a sea of men descended upon her, grasping at her like drowning men searching desperately for land.

I surged forward, trying to fend them off, my tiny fists reigning down on them ineffectually. I called upon all my strength, but to no avail. One of the men turned away from my mother to face me, a recognisable glint of menace in his cold, grey eyes. "Oh little one, you will make a fine dessert once we have gorged ourselves on your whore of a mother." I felt a familiar sense of fear descend upon me, the kind of fear that would become familiar to any who would be condemned to this Pit.

Despite this, I urged myself to stay strong, to not allow this man before me to know the depths of fear his words had evoked in me. As he moved towards me, his eyes glistening with hunger, I noticed a man appear behind him, a man who moved with a kind of stealth not usually associated with someone of his size. The man behind him was brandishing a knife, a tool highly coveted by all those who found themselves in this Hell. Before he could move closer to me, the man plunged the knife into my would be attackers throat, twisting the blade forcefully before withdrawing it. Blood began to froth from his mouth, sending splatters of his still warm blood reigning down on my face. The sound of my adversary hitting the ground was drowned out by my mother's screams. The man quickly wiped the blade on the sleeve of his shirt before placing it in a sheath in his belt. The audible proof of my mother's distress compelled me to action. Before I could make a move towards her, my masked protector swept me up in his muscular arms and began to run in the opposite direction of my mother's howls of pain. His breaths came in quick succession in an attempt to sate his body's demand for more oxygen.

I tried to wriggle free of his grasp to return to help my mother. The more I fought against the masked man, the tighter his arms around me became. "Little one I admire your courage, your bravery, but there is nothing you can do for her now. She's gone."

His words felt foreign in my ears. The soft tone of his voice did not detract from the horror of the words he had spoken. How could I leave her behind? In this abyss, she was the only thing I had, the only source of light I had to try and fend off the persistent darkness that surrounded me.

As he came to a stop, I felt his heart pounding in his chest under the hand that I had placed there. His chest was contoured and firm like the stone walls that surrounded us. My protector allowed his head to fall onto my shoulder as he took in breath after breath, each one deeper than the one preceding it. His arms around me did not loosen, nor did I wish them to. The feeling of his strong arms around me offered me the kind of comfort I had only ever experienced in the arms of my mother and now that she was gone, I was not willing to let go of such comfort any time soon.

I moved my hand from his chest and draped it around his thick neck. I looked up into his face for the first time. His face was hidden by a thick a hood, a hood dappled with the blood of the man he had killed to save me. His only discernible features were his eyes. Deep shimmering pools of brown, as endless as the Pit that we had both been thrown into. I'd seen those eyes before, in the distance, staring at me, watching me intently. As the only woman in the pit, my mother had understandably been cautious, warning me that the men who stared meant only to harm us. From a distance his gaze could be mistook for that of a lion stalking its prey but here, up close and in his arms, staring into those eyes, I saw no hint of malice or ill intent. This was not the gaze of a man who sought to harm me, but was rather the gaze of a man who sought to protect me. These were the eyes of a man who sought only to adore me, to take care for me. To love me.

From the moment our eyes locked, I knew without hesitation that this man loved me and that he would do everything in his immense power to protect me. The startling clarity of my realisation led me to wonder if it had been a force much greater than ourselves that had brought us together. Not God, for such a notion was laughable to a ward of the Pit, but a force much greater. Fate.

I lifted my hand from his neck and ran my finger along his warm cheek, feeling his scratchy stubble beneath my fingertips. His eyes closed as he revelled in my soft caress. "Are you going to hurt me?" I asked quietly, hoping that my initial instincts about the man with his arms wrapped around me were not wrong. I did not need to see his face to know that he was smiling. The smile reached his eyes, causing the skin around them to wrinkle slightly. "No little one, I mean you no harm. I wish only to serve and protect you. That is if you'll have me." He chuckled before dropping his head to my shoulder again. I began to gently peel the hood off his head, revealing a crop of short brown that was plush and soft to the touch. His body seemed to radiate heat, something I was unaccustomed to feeling in this dank Pit. My shivering body soaked it up gratefully. "Why?" I asked harshly, needing to know why this man had chosen to protect me. He raised his head, his eyes boring into me as he opened his mouth to reply to my question. "For years I have watched you and while this Pit has broken many men, it has served only strengthened you. You deserve better than the depravity of these shadows. Every man here committed terrible crimes in the light that he must now serve penance for here in the shadows. You have committed no crime. This is not your sentence to serve. You are innocent little one and I will make sure that your innocence is preserved and finds its way to the light so that it may flourish." As he finished, I saw the conviction of his words etched on his handsome features, his eyes and mouth set in determination.

This man had just risked his life to save me and had pledged to do it again and again until such time as his protection was no longer necessary. This Pit had shown me nothing but hatred and here with his arms around me was the last of those in this god forsaken Pit that was more man than monster. I hoped that someday I could be worthy of such devotion. My heart filled with an unfamiliar joy at the prospect of belonging to this strong, loving protector. "You will protect me from the dark? From those who would hurt me?" My question was tentative. He nodded his head. "Will you love me like my mother does?" I hesitated for a moment. "Like my mother did." I corrected. A cascade of hot salty tears fell from my eyes as I remembered that the love of this man had come at a hefty price. Never again would I feel my mother's soft, delicate arms around me, replaced instead by the large, heavily muscled arms of my new guardian. My masked protector brought his thumb up to wipe away the tears away from my cheek. "Yes little dove. I will love you. I will protect you. I will keep you safe until the day you spread your wings and fly away from this place." His words were kind and staved off some of my heartache. "Do you promise? Do you promise that one day I will fly far away from here. Do you promise to love me every day until then and even after it?" I whispered my voice hoarse from crying. I looked up at him with expectant eyes, eyes that had seen too much pain and sorrow to withstand any more. "I promise little dove. I promise." A tentative smile found its way onto my face. "What shall I call you then? Father? Hero? Protector?" Even as I said them, none of them seemed to fit. He smiled. "Call me mine my love for that is what I am to you. Yours."


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N I would just like to thank everyone for the alerts and favourites you are all seriously awesome! And to Lynn who reviewed asking if that was my line I would like to say yes it is and I'm glad you liked it. Also I'd really like to thank everyone who reviewed I dedicate this chapter to you all! And lastly I'd like to say I know this is a bit short but I wanted to give you guys something and I promise not to keep you waiting too long for the next chapter!_

Chapter 1

Time passed in the pit but not in the form of days and hours as I was led to believe it moved in the world above. In the pit time moves only in degrees of desperation and despair. In that regard, my time in the pit seemed to move extremely slowly in comparison to the tortured souls around me. I found a constant source of comfort in my protector, he who had named himself mine. He made it his duty to care not only for my body but for my spirit, my soul, if I were to concede that such a thing did in fact exist.

As time wore on my love of him only grew, to the point where it was as immeasurable as the darkness we found ourselves in. The wretched souls around us clamoured to immerse themselves in the light but me and mine were content to linger in the shadows. In the daylight he would train endlessly, strengthening himself not only in body but in resolve. Rivulets of sweat would dot his brow, slide over the contoured surface of his chest. At night he would hold me in his arms as I ran my thin fingers through his hair. I would mimic his breathes, synchronise them with my own, as though we were one. I found salvation in his constant warmth, comfort in his steady presence.

I was startled awake as my protector rolled out of our shared bed. Initially, at his own insistence, he had slept on the cold, wet floor of our now shared cell. However, I soon found myself unable to rest; sleep eluding me lest his arms were wrapped around me. After vehement contestation on my part, he eventually gave in and laid himself down on the narrow bed beside me, trying to take up as little room as possible, no mean feat for a man of his giant stature. We found that the only way for us both to fit onto the bed was if he lay on his back and I gently placed myself on his chest. Initially I had been hesitant, fearing that he would have difficulty breathing with my weight bearing down on his chest. When I had voiced my concerns, he began to laugh heartily. "Little dove, I carry the weight of you in my chest always, this shall make no difference." He saw the confusion etched on my face before he elaborated. "My love I mean to say that my heart is your castle, you are in residence there. Always. My heart is your strong tower and I the keeper of the gate, charged with making sure you never leave." I smiled. "So I am imprisoned there, nothing more than your captive? A prisoner of your heart as well as a prisoner of this pit?" He seemed troubled by my words, obviously unaware that I had meant them entirely in jest. "Little love if ever you wish to be free you need only ask and it shall be done." His eyes bore into me with their sincerity and I knew he meant it. I knew he would give me anything I would ever desire and deliver it onto me. I only needed to ask. His words stirred something primal in me, something more than love, more than hate, more than anything. I knew that he was the reward I had earned from a lifetime spent in the pit, a gift from the universe. I ran my fingers over his bristled cheek. "Why would I ever want to leave? You are mine. No one will ever be able to pry me away from you."

I was shaken from my reminiscing by the sound of the metal bars of our cell opening. The sound grated against my ears. My protector never rose before me, always content to lie still beneath me until I was ready to wake. I could see his silhouette moving out of our cell, sweeping into the corridor. I began to shake away the last vestiges of sleep and swung my feet out of bed. I followed behind him for a moment until he came to a stop at a seemingly random part of the pit. I watched curiously as he pried a loose brick out of the wall of the pit and removed something from it. Not wishing for him to know I had been spying on him, I hurried back to our shared cell and placed myself back between the still warm sheets of our bed. I feigned sleep, keeping my eyes closed as he entered our cell. "You are not nearly as sneaky as you think you are my love." I rolled over to face him, a smile stretching across his face. "You know I would never keep anything from you. Were you really so eager to know that you couldn't restrain yourself for a few moments." His words were gently chastising but still teasing.

I looked to his right hand where he was lightly clutching a small package, wrapped in a thin material that I recognised as the hem of a prison shirt. My curiosity piqued, I decided to ask what my protector held in his hand "What do you have there? Why were you sneaking off so early to pry it out of the wall?" My words obviously caused amusement as laughter began to erupt from his lips. "I see I shall have to find a new hiding place. Well if you must know I was trying to surprise you but you have made such a feat impossible. But here since you are so adamant, you may have it now." He reached out, handing me the package. My hands quivered excitedly as I unwrapped the surprise package. My hands were confronted by smooth wood, carved into the shape of a bird which, upon closer inspection, revealed itself to be a dove. I turned to face my protector, tears threatening to fall from my watering eyes. "Happy birthday my little dove."


End file.
